REVIEW -- Samurai Jack (Season 5) - Episodes 1-10

The fifth season of Samurai Jack is the final season of the animated series. This season follows Jack on a journey that concludes his story. It premiered on the Toonami programming block of Adult Swim on March 11, 2017 and concluded its run on May 20, 2017. The announcement of the season came in December 2015, eleven years since the series was originally concluded on Cartoon Network. Genndy Tartakovsky, the series' creator, returned as a director, writer, and storyboarder for this season.

Voice Cast

Phil LaMarr – Samurai Jack, Host, Frog
Greg Baldwin – Aku, Triseraquin
Mako Iwamatsu – Past Aku
Grey Griffin – The High Priestess, Flora, Olivia
Sab Shimono – The Emperor
Lauren Tom – The Empress
Tom Kenny – Scaramouche, Chritchellite
Kari Wahlgren – Ami, Aki
Chris Parnell – Mud Alien, Scientist
Tara Strong – Ashi, Avi, Vision
Keone Young – Bandit, Monk
Corey Burton – Crows
John DiMaggio – Scotsman
Aaron LaPlante – Dominator, The Omen, Odin
Kevin Michael Richardson – Woolie, Demongo
Keegan-Michael Key – Da' Samurai
Rob Paulsen – Rothchild
Daran Norris – Orc Army, Ra, Rama, Spartok, Max
Billy West – Walrus Merchant, Tiger Men
Jeff Glen Bennett – Monkey Man

Story

Fifty years have passed, but I do not age. Time has lost its effect on me. Yet the suffering continues. Aku's grasp chokes the past, present, and future. Hope is lost. Got to get back—back to the past. Samurai Jack.
— Jack, in the opening sequence

The story takes place fifty years after Aku cast Jack into the future, although Jack himself hasn't aged at all as a side effect of time travel. Aku has destroyed all the time portals in existence, but he is deeply distressed over the prospect of battling Jack forever and has stopped pursuing him directly. Jacks previous actions have inspired many to oppose Aku's tyranny, among them being an elderly Scotsman, who is organizing an uprising to finally bring an end to the demon. Unknown to Aku, Jack has lost his sword, and he is troubled by hallucinations of his deceased family, his former self, and the victims of Aku, almost to the point of suicide. Now a wandering warrior with little purpose, a now bearded Jack uses a suit of armor and futuristic weapons and vehicles to fight the forces of Aku.

A set of septuplet girls, the "Daughters of Aku", are born into a cult of Aku worshipers and raised as assassins with the sole purpose of killing Jack. When they come of age, the Daughters of Aku find and overwhelm Jack, destroying his equipment in the process, but he manages to kill all the Daughters but one, Ashi, who he spares out of remorse upon learning of her upbringing.

Accompanying Jack on his journey, Ashi comes to see Aku as evil, and helps Jack through his emotional and spiritual journey, talking him out of commiting suicide and helping him reclaim his lost sword. The two eventually become romantically involved as they journey to defeat Aku. Aku is eventually informed by one of his assassins that Jack lost his sword and confronts him, not knowing Jack has recovered it in the interim. Before leaving, Aku senses that Ashi has part of him inside her, and possesses her body to attack Jack. Jack refuses to kill Ashi, and lays down his sword in defeat.

Aku takes Jack prisoner and prepares to kill him, but the people Jack helped all over the planet rally to his defense. When Jack tells Ashi that he loves her, she regains control of her mind and helps Jack regain his sword. Realizing she possesses Aku's powers, she opens a time portal to return Jack and herself to the moment Aku sent Jack to the future. more specifically, ten seconds afterwards. Weakened from their first fight, Aku is unable to defend himself or flee and is finally killed by Jack, saving his homeland and family.

With peace restored, he prepares to marry Ashi, but on her way to the altar she suddenly collapses, and Jack rushes to her side. She tells him that she realizes that since Aku is now dead, she would never had been born in the future, and she fades away, erased from existence. Saddened, Jack travels despondently to the countryside, but his spirits rise upon seeing a ladybug, which lands on his hand. It reminds him of the good times he and Ashi spent together. He lets the ladybug go free and contently looks upon his homeland, having returned to everlasting harmony and tranquility, under a sakura tree.

Episode Summaries (FULL Spoilers)

53 1 "XCII" 

Fifty years have passed since Jack arrived in the future; his sword is lost, he has given up hope of returning to his time and he is tormented by hallucinations of his parents, his kingdom, and a mysterious armored figure on horseback. Jack, now using futuristic weapons and armor, rescues a mother and her two children from several bug robots, and wanders the land on a motorcycle. Scaramouche—a fast-talking musical assassin robot styled after the late Sammy Davis Jr.[14]—has destroyed a village and killed all of its people to get Jack's attention. Jack delays in arriving to the village, but eventually defeats Scaramouche. Meanwhile, seven young girls are raised and trained from birth by an Aku-worshiping cult led by the High Priestess to become the Daughters of Aku, a team of assassins with the sole purpose of killing Jack.

54 2 "XCIII" 

Aku has grown tired of pursuing Jack and is starting to give up hope of ever defeating him, especially since he has stopped aging. Elsewhere, the Daughters of Aku overwhelm and disarm Jack; while hiding from them, he hallucinates an argument with his younger self about the point of keeping on living and fighting. He flees to a nearby temple ruin, pursued by the Daughters. One of them stabs him in the side as he kills her, and he discovers the Daughters are human, not robots as he assumed. Jack uses Scaramouche's tuning fork-like dagger to make the temple walls explode, and escapes into a river flowing past it. The episode's climax is an homage to the musical composition "The Ecstasy of Gold".

55 3 "XCIV" 

Jack floats downriver and takes shelter in a cave, while the six surviving Daughters of Aku track him. He hallucinates an argument with himself over whether he can bring himself to kill all the Daughters if necessary as he had never before killed a human. A wounded wolf joins Jack in the cave, and they both recuperate from their injuries. Jack recalls an incident from his childhood when his family was accosted by assassins, where his father gave the assassins a choice: leave, or "face your destiny". They attacked, and were killed by Jack's father. As the Daughters of Aku close in on Jack, he gives them the same choice, echoing his father's words. When they stay, he quickly kills three and lures the others onto a branch hanging over an abyss. One by one Jack drops them into the abyss, but before he can return to solid ground, the branch breaks and he too falls into the abyss.

56 4 "XCV" 

Jack awakens and finds one of the Daughters of Aku lying bloodied in the snow. He is attacked by one of the Daughters, Ashi, but he quickly subdues her and binds her with the chain from her own chain-sickle. They are both suddenly swallowed by an enormous creature. As they fall, Ashi again attacks Jack, but he saves her from the deadly fall into the creature. Jack hallucinates an argument with himself over saving Ashi or leaving her to die. He protects her and carries her with him as he makes his way out, despite her barrage of threats and ongoing attempts to kill him. They eventually make it out of the creature and into a body of water, where Jack saves Ashi from drowning and carries her to a small island. She prepares to attack him again, but relents and drops her sickle upon seeing Jack gently release a ladybug that landed on his hand, in contrast to the High Priestess, who had crushed a ladybug for not being "a part of Aku's order".

57 5 "XCVI"

The Scotsman, now elderly and wheelchair-bound, leads an attack on Aku's tower. Aku easily obliterates two of the three assembled armies. The Scotsman stalls Aku to allow his army, consisting of his daughters, to retreat. He is killed, but returns to life as a specter, and instructs his daughters to regroup, find Jack and destroy Aku. Elsewhere, Ashi has a troubling vision of the High Priestess, who is disgusted and disappointed at Ashi's insubordination. Ashi asks Jack to prove his claims of Aku's evil nature. They journey to several places destroyed by Aku, and eventually come upon a razed village whose children are forced to attack them through a mind-control device. As Ashi destroys the mind-control device, Jack is horrified to see the children collapse, believing them to be dead. The mysterious figure on horseback appears, and Jack willingly follows the figure into the fog. Ashi arrives as the children start coming to, and finds that Jack is gone.

58 6 "XCVII"

As Ashi searches for Jack, she comes across many grateful people that Jack had helped in the past. Ashi finds Jack in a graveyard surrounded by the spirits of great warriors. The horseman that has been haunting Jack, the Omen, announces that Jack must face the consequences of his failure or be dishonored. Jack prepares to commit seppuku, while the Omen attacks Ashi to keep her from interfering. She pleads to Jack not to lose hope and tells him of all the lives he saved, including her own and even the children from the previous episode. Jack confronts and defeats the specter, then tells Ashi it's time to find his sword. Meanwhile, Scaramouche, who was reduced to a head after his defeat by Jack, sets out to inform Aku that Jack lost his sword.

59 7 "XCVIII" 

Jack recounts to Ashi the circumstances surrounding the loss of his sword. He fought Aku atop a mountain at the last time portal in existence when Aku destroyed the portal. Angrily, Jack fought and killed three innocent goats transformed into monsters by Aku. Traumatized after killing living creatures, Jack dropped his mystical sword which fell into a deep pit. In the present, Jack and Ashi return to the mountain, but they cannot find the sword. Jack realizes that the sword abandoned him because of his consuming anger. As Jack meditates to determine its whereabouts, Ashi keeps watch over him. She slaughters an army of soldiers trying to kill him, and foils a sneak attack by the High Priestess, killing her with an arrow. Jack's meditations take him on an astral journey to an old monk, who tells him after a tea ceremony that he has lost his sense of spiritual balance. Relinquishing his anger, Jack regains that balance and is transported to a heavenly realm where the gods Ra, Rama and Odin give him his sword, samurai gi, and restore his appearance from the last four seasons. After he returns to the material world, he and Ashi set out to confront Aku.

60 8 "XCIX"

A spaceship is knocked off course by an asteroid and crashes on Earth. Elsewhere, Jack and Ashi travel together and board a giant beast that carries passengers across the desert. The other passengers attack them, so the two escape and continue traveling on foot. They get caught in a sandstorm and find shelter in the crashed spaceship. They encounter thousands of leech-like creatures that band together as a creature named Lazarus and attack them. They escape, and come upon a weapon designed specifically to counter the creature, however they do not know how to operate it. Jack and Ashi fight the creatures and try to activate the weapon, without success; as they are almost completely engulfed by the creatures Jack manages to activate the device and it electrocutes the creatures. After Jack and Ashi recuperate, there is a smash cut of the two passionately kissing as Dean Martin's "Everybody Loves Somebody" starts playing. The song continues to play over the end credits.

61 9 "C" 

Ashi bonds with Jack as he tells her of his life before Aku. During the night, Jack ventures off alone, and by day happens upon the location where he unsuccessfully fought the Guardian of a time portal Jack was destined to use. He finds the portal destroyed as well as the Guardian's broken red glasses, confirming Aku's claim that he destroyed them all. Ashi catches up to Jack, who explains he left her behind out of fear of losing her to Aku as he did many others of his loved ones. Ashi reassures Jack that together, they will defeat Aku. At that moment Aku appears with Scaramouche, who has finally informed Aku about Jack losing his sword. Upon seeing Jack does have his sword, Aku destroys Scaramouche and decides to leave before sensing his own power inside of Ashi. Confused, Aku recalls visiting the Daughters of Aku and leaving part of himself in a goblet for them, and assumes the High Priestess must have drank it and given birth to her seven children, making Ashi his biological daughter. Noticing Jack's affection for her, Aku possesses and transforms Ashi, and forces her to fight Jack. Jack tells her to resist, but she is unable to do so. When Jack wounds Ashi, she briefly comes back to her senses and desperately begs Jack to kill her. Unwilling to do so, Jack drops to his knees and lays down his sword, which Aku then holds up triumphantly.

62 10 "CI"

Aku imprisons Jack in his fortress and begins to broadcast the samurai's capture to the entire world. After the villain ponders on how exactly he is going to destroy Jack, many of the closest allies and good friends Jack has made over the years come to battle Aku and rescue Jack. Jack faces off against the possessed Ashi and manages to free her of Aku's possession by telling her that he loves her. Being half-demon, Ashi then discovers that she's inherited Aku's powers, and uses them to send herself and Jack back to the past to the moment right after Aku had sent him into the future. Jack finally destroys Aku for good, rescuing his family and preventing the tyrant's rule over the future, which effectively rewrites the timeline. On the day of Jack and Ashi's wedding ceremony, Ashi suddenly collapses and fades out of existence, as Aku's destruction in the past has prevented Ashi from ever being born in the future. Some time later, a despondent Jack wanders a misty wood alone, but gains hope for the future when he sees a ladybug land on his hand, reminding him of his time with Ashi. He lets the ladybug go free and stands under a full blooming sakura tree, looking out as the mists disperse to reveal his now peacefully harmonious realm.

The Verdict:

As you may know, I already covered the premiere here, so I'm going to cover the bulk of the remaining episodes while focusing a lot of this review on the arching theme for this "season".

I thought the backstory and build-up to Jack facing off against the Daughters of Aku was very well done with a nice symbolic throwback to the classic days that this series is known for, especially with the wounded animal being forced to slaughter those for his own survival. Genndy Tartakovsky has never shied away from powerful usage of symbolism and he definitely doesn't skip a beat here. I'm sure that long-time fans will catch the subtle nods towards previous benchmarks from this series, such as Jack's debut in the first episode is a homage to his confrontation with the Spider Drones from the premiere movie that kicked off this series, the influences from Jack's confrontation with the eight Assassins and the contrasting white/black color balances from his battle with the Black Ninja, and the minions of Set during Jack's Egyptian adventure. I enjoyed the backstory and conflict of interest with Jack debating on whether or not to kill the Daughters of Aku when he found out that they were human. That kinda threw me off a bit when the series did pit Jack against mortal opponents in the past. Not everything that he faced in the original 4 seasons weren't "demons" or mere machines. Hell, there was an entire episode devoted to the face that there was human/mortal assassins after his very life. So this whole premise of Jack having a moral dilemma about having to kill/strike down mortal opponents was a little lost on me.

That being said, they made Ashii's redemption story a bit too obvious. She was only one of the Daughters of Aku that showed any hint of goodness from their upbringing and flashbacks from their training. I felt these episodes telegraphed that a bit too hard and took the wind out of the sails on that revelation. I was thinking that Ashii would end up becoming Jack's successor in the future timeline after her redemption storyline played, but the narrative shoehorned her into a love interest for Jack. One of the biggest gripes from the original series was in the first season where Akra was setup as a love interest for Jack in one of the earlier episodes of this series, only to be made out to be another Jack ploy. That was the main reason I wasn't surprised when Ashii was made into a pawn to stand in Jack's way when he finally confronted Aku once and for all. But I'm getting ahead a bit here... Before we go into that confrontation into detail, I want to discuss Ashii's "transformation" a bit more in detail.

I have to agree with Scaramouche on that one.

I thought it was cool that she was able to revisit and meet the individuals that Jack has saved or inspired throughout his travels. Some of these were welcome cameos (Da Sa-Moo-Rai, the Ravers all grown up, the Woolies, the Archers, etc.), but others like Demongo made me go "WTF?" when they had like nothing to do with the finale. If Demongo was still alive, then why the hell he didn't assist Aku against Jack in the finale? How is he still alive anyway after failing to defeat Jack and his own essence turned against him? Ugh, such a missed opportunity to bring back one of Aku's best underlings back for another shot against Jack. I did like Scaramouche though, but I felt like he got far too much screen time than he deserved.

Ashii found herself inspired by Jack's devotion to do good and his sacrifices to save others and cleansed herself - physically and mentally - of her hatred of him. At the same time, she didn't abandon her skills that made her such a formidable opponent for the Samurai in the first place. Ashii versus the hordes of Aku stood out as establishing her as Jack's equal - I felt that episode was her equivalent of Jack's iconic battle against the Spider drones that stands out as one of the series' best episodes - even to this day. That's why I was holding onto my hope that she would end up being Jack's successor of sorts instead of falling into a love interest trope.

Something that fans were asking by the end of Season 4...

The effects of Jack being unaffected by time travel and unable to age was something else that wasn't explained by the end of this season, much to my dismay. I did like that Jack was dealing with an inner turmoil that caused him to lose his sword in the first place. Fans should remember that even if he had the sword that Jack cannot kill or do anything malicious with it anyway, so it was best that he didn't have it when he faced the Daughters of Aku anyway. That was one main reason why I didn't see any reason to be worried when Aku took the sword during the finale anyway. There was an entire episode devoted to the fact that Aku can't use it to harm Jack in any shape or form. I couldn't see why Jack just didn't use the sword on Ashii and brought her back to her senses right off the bat since it shouldn't kill her as long as she has good within her. Jack's inner turmoil reminded me of Jack's dark side that Aku manifested in one of the earlier seasons that Jack had to confront and qwell to maintain his own clarity of his own mission. It's natural that he would lose his way after being on this path for so long, especially after the last time portal was destroyed and dealing with the trauma that he slaughtered innocent lives without thinking twice. Now that I'm thinking about it... Damn, that kinda doesn't make sense. The sword shouldn't even allowed him to kill those lives PERIOD in the first place unless Aku's infection/evil was so toxic that the sword couldn't detect the good within, but oh well... I guess that's the same thing Jack feared that would have happened if he struck down Ashii when she was completely consumed by Aku.

Jack always finds a way.

The action from start to finish never skipped a beat. That's one thing that I looked forward too more than anything else in this revival. Jack and Ashii definitely didn't disappoint in that regard. That being said, I don't think the mature rating was really necessary as it was seldom used outside of a few adult themed jokes that I'm sure only fans of the original series that grew up and are revisiting this series 11 years later would only appreciate. Scaramouche's comment about that one guy's head looking like a penis was as blunt as you're going to get though in terms of adult content outside of a few "fan service" moments of Ashii being semi-nude or getting her clothes ripped off.

The fan-fictions and fans shipping them together online went NUTS when this happened live when this episode premiered...

Back onto Jack and Ashii's romance... That moment was so fucking random and threw me off that they did that at the end of that episode. It felt so rushed and forced too. I wanted Jack to have a female companion during his adventures back when this began but not shoehorned into the fifth season to serve as a minor plot device. As the ongoing trope(s) of this series, you knew that Aku was going to find a means to use that against Jack - just like he always finds a way to turn everything good Jack has going against him or ruin it completely. That's why I ultimately disappointed that this series came down to this lazy style of writing. Eleven years waiting for an ending that most people have cooked up in fan-fictions... ugh. With the age differences between Jack and Ashii I would have preferred that he saw her as a sort of a surrogate daughter of his own and passed on his teachings to her to continue when he returned to the past. Making her his lover just felt like a cop out.

While we're at it, let's discuss the ending in detail. Jack's spirit is broken after he could not bring himself to kill Ashii that stands in his way of defeating Aku - Ashii has been consumed by Aku's darkness and serves him loyally as his new lieutenant. Aku holds Jack hostage within his lair with the sword outside of his reach, but ALL of Jack's allies come to his aid and stage an all-out assault on Aku - including the Scotsman (who was killed by Aku in a previous episode but manages to continue to fight on as a ghost) and his hundreds of daughters, Mr. "Jump Good" and his gang of monkeys, the gentleman dogs from the Spider drone two-parter, the Archers, the Woolies, and even the Atlantians to name a few. Hell, even the robots from the giant mecha episode even came to help Jack with their giant robotic Samurai. All of these cameos were a treat to see, especially Jack reuniting with the Scotsman and turning down his proposal to marry one of his daughters, but ultimately, Jack's allies didn't make much of a lasting impact in this battle. It came down to Jack helping Ashii overcome Aku's darkness with their love for each other and regaining his sword. That whole revelation about Ashii having Aku's powers as a result was rather stupid AND careless of Aku, but it instantly rushed this confrontation to the moment that we've all been waiting for since the premiere of this series - Jack returning back to the past and destroying Aku once and for all.

What transpired afterwards was best described by folks on social media as the "Gurren Lagann" ending, whereas viewers were expiring the happily ever after ending where Ashii and Jack were set to get married in front of Jack's family, mentors, and peers in his own time as the world returned to peace now that Aku was gone, only for that moment to be robbed from Jack as Ashii disappeared before his very eyes. Much like Simon's love, Ashii failed to exist after dispatching the major villain (in this case, Aku... in hers, the Anti-Spirals), leaving Jack to mourn her loss in the closing moments of the show. In his time of mourning, Jack sees a ladybug and he is reminded of Ashii and the happier times of his journey as we fade to black.

This is where fans have been split on their reception of the series' ending here. At first glance, I was on the fence about it but after having a week to think it over and rewatching the marathon as part of Memorial Day weekend on the Toonami block tonight, I feel like this was a copout. Genndy Tartakovsky made us wait for eleven years for an ending that most people guessed that would happen and never really answered a lot of the questions that were left unanswered, nor issues that were left unresolved. Shades' purpose never was truly revealed, nor was Demongo's revival along with what happened with Jack's allies in the future now that Aku was deposed of. I know people were more happy to see Jack and Ashii getting married and Jack being reunited with his family and mentors in his own time was rewarding enough for the perils that his adventure had put him through, but it ultimately felt so rushed and abrupt. I'm not going to give the creator a pass for time and make excuses that they could have extended this finale out with another episode to wrap things up in an epilogue of sorts, but it just comes down to lazy writing wrapping this up.

I felt that the first portion of this journey up to where Jack got his sword back was done masterfully, but everything after that felt like Cliff Notes to a bigger and better written story. It reminds me how Inuyasha: The Final Act was rushed along to hit all of the major points of the manga before setting Inuyasha and his allies to their final confrontation with Naraku. It's the same thing here, where I feel like viewers were shafted for this rushed narrative in favor of just getting it out there for wrapping up the story to an ending. At least Inuyasha's ending is satisfying to an extent, but viewers were robbed of the addition content and events that transpired that were omitted and skipped over from the manga.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Eleven years is a long time to be away from something and to be dragged back into the fold to complete something you thought you would never have the opportunity to finish. That being said, after seeing this from start to finish, I'm kinda leery about wanting Tartakovsky cooking up a proper ending for Sym-Biotic Titan next.

Whether you liked the original or just here for the ride for the first time, Samurai Jack Season 5 is worth the ride, despite being an emotional roller coaster in its closing moments. Some people will absolutely love it, others will absolutely hate it, but we can all agree that Samurai Jack will always have a place in history as one of finest examples of American animation.

Jack's back, but I couldn't help but wonder was this a journey worth revisiting when it was all said and done. As much as I would love to see a revival/continuation to Sym-Biotic Titan in a similar fashion, I'm unsure if I would want to see Genndy Tartakovsky return to another one of his previous works if its going to end in another lackluster effort in the long haul. Then again, at least this didn't turn out as bad as those last few seasons of Dexter's Laboratory or the Powerpuff Girls reboot.

Despite how I feel about how this ultimately went down, I have say one thing to Genndy Tartakovsky and Cartoon Network as they didn't have to do anything to resolve and finish Samurai Jack's journey. Not many CN Originals get a chance to go out on their own terms, but at least we got to see Jack's quest come to an end. With that, I only have to say this...

PREVIEW -- Castlevania | Teaser: Vengeance | Netflix

I meant to post this yesterday, but here it is this fine morning.

I think this looks great so far and they've axed all of my fears of this being a live-action series. Between Underworld, Twilight, and a few other noteworthy offenders, I think Hollywood has damaged vampires enough over the last few decades with live-action outings, so I'm glad this is actually an anime instead. The basis on Castlevania III will give them MORE than enough material to work with - ANY Castlevania fan can tell you that much. That was the jump off point where Hideo Kojima started with for his Lords of Shadow trilogy for inspiration. I'm anxious to see whether if they are going to stick to the source material or go with their own twists on these events that follow.

Either way, we're in for a short wait as the series is set to debut on July 7th. 

REVIEW -- Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and the fifteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is written and directed by James Gunn and stars an ensemble cast featuring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone, and Kurt Russell. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the Guardians travel throughout the cosmos as they help Peter Quill learn more about his true parentage.

Cast:

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Vin Diesel as Baby Groot
Bradley Cooper as Rocket
Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Pom Klementieff as Mantis
Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha
Chris Sullivan as Taserface
Sean Gunn as Kraglin
Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogord
Kurt Russell as Ego

Additionally, reprising their roles from the first film are Laura Haddock as Meredith Quill, Gregg Henry as her father, Seth Green as the voice of Howard the Duck, and canine actor Fred as Cosmo. Members of Yondu's Ravager crew appearing in the film include Evan Jones as Wrench, Jimmy Urine as Half-Nut, Stephen Blackehart as Brahl, Steve Agee as Gef, Mike Escamilla as Scrote, Joe Fria as Oblo, Terence Rosemore as Narblik, and Tommy Flanagan as Tullk, as well as Charred Walls of the Damned drummer and Howard Stern Show personality Richard Christy in a cameo appearance. Many of these actors are close friends with Gunn. The other members of Stakar and Yondu's old team, based on the comic's original incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, include Michael Rosenbaum as Martinex, Ving Rhames as Charlie-27, and Michelle Yeoh as Stakar's female counterpart Aleta Ogord. Also included in the team are the CG characters Krugarr and Mainframe, with the latter voiced, in an uncredited cameo, by Miley Cyrus. Gunn cast Yeoh because of his love of 1990s Hong Kong films, and Cyrus after admiring "the tone of her voice" while watching her as a judge on The Voice. He added that the team would return in future MCU films alongside Stallone's Stakar.

David Hasselhoff makes a cameo appearance as himself, when Ego shape-shifts to his likeness, while Rob Zombie once again has a Ravager voice cameo. Stan Lee appears as an informant to the Watchers, discussing previous adventures that include Lee's cameos in other MCU films. This was a nod to the popular fan theory that Lee may be portraying one of the Watchers himself in his various cameo appearances, with Feige stating, "Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun—James had that idea and ... that really says, so wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films?" Jeff Goldblum briefly appears during the credits as the Grandmaster, ahead of a much larger role in Thor: Ragnarok. Jim Gunn Sr. and Leota Gunn, parents of James and Sean Gunn, also make cameo appearances in the film.

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

In 2014, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Baby Groot are renowned as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race, has the Guardians protect valuable Anulax batteries from an inter-dimensional monster in exchange for Gamora's estranged sister Nebula, who was caught attempting to steal the batteries. After Rocket steals some for himself, the Sovereign attacks the Guardians' ship with a fleet of drones. The drones are destroyed by a mysterious figure, but the Guardians are forced to crash-land on a nearby planet. The figure reveals himself as Quill's father, Ego. He invites Quill, accompanied by Gamora and Drax, to his home planet, while Rocket and Groot remain behind to repair the ship and guard Nebula.

Meanwhile, Ayesha hires Yondu Udonta and his crew, who have been exiled from the greater Ravager community for child trafficking, to recapture the Guardians. They capture Rocket, but when Yondu shows reluctance to turn over Quill, his lieutenant Taserface leads a mutiny with help from Nebula. Taserface imprisons Rocket and Yondu aboard Yondu's ship and executes his loyalists while Nebula leaves to track down and kill Gamora, whom she blames for all the torture inflicted on her by their father, Thanos. While imprisoned, Rocket and Yondu bond. Groot, together with Yondu's loyalist Kraglin, frees Rocket and Yondu and they destroy the ship and its crew as they escape, though not before Taserface tips off the Sovereign fleet.

Ego explains that he is a god-like Celestial, a millennia-old consciousness that manipulated the matter around it to form the planet with itself at the core. Ego eventually formed a human guise to travel the universe and interact with other species to escape his loneliness and discover a purpose, eventually meeting and falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith. Ego hired Yondu to collect the young Quill after Meredith's death, but the boy was never delivered and Ego had been searching for his son ever since. He teaches Quill to manipulate their Celestial power. Nebula arrives at Ego's planet and tries to kill Gamora, but fails and the pair reach an uneasy alliance when they discover caverns filled with skeletal remains. Ego reveals to Quill that in his travels he planted seedlings upon thousands of worlds which can terraform them into new extensions of himself, but they can only be activated by the combined power of two Celestials. To that end, he impregnated countless women and hired Yondu to collect the children; Ego killed them all when they failed to access the Celestial power. Ego forcefully uses Quill to activate the seedlings, which begin to consume every world. Quill fights back after Ego reveals that he deliberately caused Meredith's death as his love for her distracted him from his purpose.

Ego's pet empath, Mantis, grows close to Drax and warns him, Gamora, and Nebula of Ego's plan just as Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin arrive. The reunited Guardians reach Ego's brain at the planet's core, and fight the Sovereign's arriving drones. Rocket makes a bomb out of the stolen batteries that Groot plants on Ego's brain, while Quill battles Ego with his newfound Celestial powers to allow the other Guardians to escape. The bomb explodes, killing Ego and causing the planet to disintegrate. Yondu sacrifices himself to save Quill, who comes to realize Yondu did not deliver him to Ego in order to spare him from the fate of Ego's other progeny, and that Yondu was Quill's true "daddy". Having reconciled with Gamora, Nebula still chooses to set out and attempt to kill Thanos. The Guardians hold a funeral for Yondu, which is attended by dozens of Ravager ships, acknowledging Yondu's sacrifice and accepting him again as a Ravager.

In a series of mid- and post-credit scenes, Kraglin takes up Yondu's telekinetic arrow and control fin; Ravager leader Stakar Ogord, inspired by Yondu's sacrifice, reunites with his ex-teammates; Groot starts growing back to normal size, exhibiting typical teenage behavior in the process; Ayesha creates a new artificial being with whom she plans to destroy the Guardians, naming him Adam; and a group of uninterested Watchers listen to their informant discuss several experiences on Earth.

The Verdict: 

I don't like thinking of this film as a sequel as it honestly felt like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1.5 to me. The focus here was mostly on the character development that was missing and desperately lacking in the original film and introducing a wide spectrum of major players that will more likely take the center stage after Infinity War and/or Phase 4.

Characters and Casting

I'm Mary Poppins, y'all! 

Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) is as adorable as he was at the ending of the original film, but the focus isn't on him as much as casual fans are expecting going into this. I was glad too as he stole too much of the spotlight from the other characters in the original film and that the others were allowed the shine more this time around. Michael Rooker reprises his role as Yondu in one of the two redemption character arcs in this film. I thought it was a nice touch to have him identify with Rocket as both were the loose cannons and/or oddman out for their respective affiliations - Yondu with the Ravagers (we'll come back to this later) and Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) with the Guardians.

I'm still not too crazy about Zoe Saldana playing Gamora, but it seems she's dialed it back a bit in terms of being the hardened woman that she was at first glance in the original film. Karen Gillian as Nebula shines once again as she's given more material to work with this time around with the second of this film's two redemption character arcs. As much as I don't care for Star-Lord being a goof in this continuity, it's hard to hate Chris Pratt's natural charm in the role; even though there are times where I feel like he's just coasting on what worked for him back in Parks and Recreation. Pom Klementieff impressed me with her performance as Mantis for the most part, but I'm not too keen on her character being so naive and clueless. I get her innocence as a stranger to customs outside of Ego's planet, but I guess that I'm more used to her later iteration as a bad ass on the West Coast Avengers team. I can't judge too much here on her performance as this was her introduction and first appearance as the character, so I'll give her a pass for now.

Narrative

This film starts off in an awkward few months after the end of the first film, picking up with the Guardians taking up a job to protect Anulax batteries. I thought this was a rather interesting way to start the film, not for the excitement that ensued, but for director James Gunn to kick off with a significant reference to Marvel lore right off the bat. Well, it was a small throwback to the "power pack" that the Fantastic Four used to defeat Ego in their short-lived animated series in the mid-90's. That device didn't have a name, but when Rocket explained what those batteries were capable of, I immediately thought of that.

I thought the film did a bad job at explaining the significance of the Sovereign and Ayeshia's race in the cosmos of the MCU and just shoehorned them as the constant threat/minor inconvenience for the Guardians over the course of this film. Why would they even bother going after the Guardians themselves when they put out the bounty on their group? That really didn't make much sense, unless they were just bored and were looking for sport as their pursuit crafts were literally Galaga for their race not even piloting the ships as they controlled them remotely like a video game. Then again, Ayeshia served her purpose as she revealed that she created Adam (Warlock) in the mid-credits teaser. FYI Marvel and Kevin Feige already confirmed that they aren't going to use him in the same role that he had in the comics during the fight with Thanos, but Adam is going to be around for Phase 4.

I feel sorry for anyone who didn't know who Stakar Ogord (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) was going into this film and had to wait until they got home or whenever someone explained it for them online who he is and why he was significant here. Director James Gunn kept it simple for the most part and limited Ogord to being part of the Ravagers mercenary group that Yondu was affiliated with previously before being paid off by Ego to do his dirty work. Savvy and long-time Marvel Comics fans would immediately know him to be the leader of the original comics iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy (or rather Guardians 3000 as they are referred to nowadays) who went by the codename Starhawk. Between his inclusion here and in the mid-credits teaser, I'm anxious to see what Marvel has in store for that group of Guardians, or rather Ravagers in this continuity. I'm hoping that Marvel Studios pulls back the curtain and explores a lot more of the cosmic realm of things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they have barely scratched the surface of what they could do with that corner of Marvel's comic book lore. Between Adam Warlock and these new Ravagers, they are definitely setting up some cool things for Phase 4, maybe an old school and current Guardians team-up for Vol. 3 or 4? I'd definitely enjoy that myself.

I was skeptical at first about the plot conveniently branching off to split up the Guardians into two groups that would have to reunite by the end of the film, but it sold me on this narrative presentation by the film's climax. Rocket (along with Baby Groot in the passenger seat) were allowed to connect on a personal level as part of Yondu's redemption character arc here while Nebula was struggling to understand how these "strangers" connect with each other as part of her own inner conflict that was explored in her own character arc after confronting Gamora in combat once again.

Peter/Star-Lord was allowed to connect with Ego for some humorous moments, but ultimately felt like we were watching the first film all over again with how Peter interacts with everyone, including his own father. The whole final encounter with Ego screams the same amount of absurdity as the final battle with Ronan at the end of the original film, but at least it wasn't as cheesy here. I'll give them that much. In the original film, I was rolling my eyes at the final battle against Ronan more than anything.

Mantis' innocence stole the show more than Baby Groot here for me. Despite the fact that she was a newcomer to the cast, Mantis manages to connect with Drax on a level that no one else has been able to relate with him to this point in these films as she was able to reflect his inner pain that he bottles up into herself using her empathetic abilities. That alone gave Drax's character more depth than his blunt, literal demeanor and sometimes deadpan humor. I was hoping to see Mantis do more in combat than just stand around helpless, or rather being carried to the ship like a ragdoll by Drax. I guess there there was only so much action they could squeeze in for Star-Lord, Yondu, Rocket, Gamorra, Drax, and Nebula. Hopefully, we'll get more Mantis action in Vol. 3, along with maybe Moondragon joining the team by that point. Fingers crossed!

To say that people complains about female characters in Marvel films having a huge lack of character development, they definitely knocked it out of the park with expanding upon Nebula and Gamora's upbringing. Nebula revealed the details of how she got her cybernetics as part of being raised as a daughter of Thanos (FYI her and Gamora aren't Thanos' children by blood, he just "adopts" these girls after massacring their worlds. So they have no choice but to call him their "father" or face death. If you missed the point by now, but that's the sole reason that Nebula exists is to kill him for all of the pain that Thanos has caused her), along with her feelings about being raised alongside Gamora. Nebula showed more depth and layers to her character than Gamora to this point, who was uncharacteristically too kind for my taste in this film outside of maybe two scenes. I had to frown on that, especially to say that she's supposed to be a hardened warrior. I supposed many will argue that her budding relationship with Peter Quill/Starlord has softened her up. A part of me was rather skeptical on how Nebula comes around to being one of the impromptu members of the Guardians and helping them save the day as she wanted nothing but Gamora's death while working for Ronan in the first film. Remember she left Gamora out in space to die until Quill decided to be heroic for once and saved her. 

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Definitely watch this. The biggest complaint to come out of the original GOTG is that there wasn't enough character development for the cast of characters, but they managed to tell a tale of the most unlikely of people becoming a team and saving the universe...err galaxy. Here, they manage to elaborate on each of these fractured souls that make up this team and add three more members to their ranks that add even more charm to an already stellar cast. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the additions of Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Quicksilver fell flat a bit, but here, director James Gunn manages to knock it out of the park. Gunn has to be applauded for introducing so many new concepts and characters for the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward and not allowing his film to become lost in it's own means of setting the stage for the future of what is yet to come for this continuity.

Besides, why are you reading this review looking for me to tell you to go see this? We all know you wanted to see this the second you saw Baby Groot in the trailers. 

REVIEW -- Injustice 2

Injustice 2 is a fighting video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to 2013's Injustice: Gods Among Us. The game was released in May 2017 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Similar to the previous installment, a companion mobile app was released for iOS and Android devices.

The core gameplay remains similar to its predecessor, albeit with minor adjustments to returning game mechanics. Injustice 2 introduces a new feature called the Gear System, a loot-dropping system that rewards players with costume pieces and equipment that can be used to customize characters' appearances and modify their abilities and stats. According to developers, the idea for implementing an RPG-style progression system into a fighting game had existed since before the fall of Midway Games, the original publisher for the Mortal Kombat series. Director Ed Boon also sought to incorporate gameplay mechanics used by multiplayer shooter games, such as personalization, character creation, loot, and leveling up, into the fighting game genre, which led to the development of the Gear System.

Injustice 2's storyline centers around Batman and his insurgency's attempt to restore society after the fall of Superman's regime; however, the arrivals of the newly formed supervillain group "The Society" and the alien Brainiac force Batman to consider freeing the imprisoned Superman to help combat the threats.

Plot: (FULL Spoilers) 

Five years after Superman's defeat, Batman and his collaborators attempt to piece the world back together. However, a new faction, the Society, composed of villains spearheaded by Gorilla Grodd, emerges and plans for world domination. With several of his allies either victims of or collaborators with Superman's failed regime, Batman is forced to create a new team to combat the Society. He sends Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Harley Quinn to combat them in Gorilla City, where Doctor Fate warns Green Arrow and Black Canary of an incoming threat towards the planet. After defeating Grodd, the two are abducted by Brainiac, the true mastermind behind the Society. Having previously collected and destroyed Krypton, he had intended to reclaim Superman, but became interested in adding Earth to his collection. After Brainiac takes over Batman's communications hub, Brother Eye, Batman searches for allies to combat him.

Catwoman, Batman's double agent within the Society, frees Harley from Gorilla City. Flash and a reformed Green Lantern reunite before joining Batman, who sends Hal to Atlantis to gain Aquaman's assistance. Aquaman refuses to cooperate at first, but relents after Brainiac attacks Atlantis. Meanwhile, Black Adam has found Kara Zor-El's disabled evacuation ship in space and brought her to Kahndaq, where he and Wonder Woman give partial truths about her cousin, leading her to become "Supergirl". When they witness Brainiac's forces attacking Earth, they attempt to revive the regime. Desperate, Batman releases Superman from custody.

Cyborg, Catwoman, and Harley Quinn return to the Batcave to free Brother Eye from Brainiac's control and coordinate civilian evacuation efforts. Wonder Woman takes Supergirl to Metropolis, and openly challenges Batman's plan. When she comes close to killing Cheetah and Harley Quinn, Supergirl stops her and heads to the Fortress of Solitude to confront Superman on the matter, learning the truth of her cousin's tyranny. With several of Earth's cities abducted, Brainiac prepares to eradicate the planet. The alliance attempts to take on Brainiac's ship, but his shields are too strong and he seemingly kills Superman in the process. They concoct a plan to weaken Brainiac's shields by using Aquaman's trident as a conduit for the magic of the Rock of Eternity.

Grodd pursues Aquaman and Black Adam with a brainwashed Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Blue Beetle. After Aquaman kills Grodd, the pair successfully weakens Brainiac's shields enough for Batman and Supergirl to break in. The two are captured, but Batman is rescued by Superman. After they defeat a brainwashed Firestorm and Swamp Thing, they are confronted by Doctor Fate, turned into Brainiac's servant by the Lords of Order. Fate is defeated and his helmet is destroyed, removing the Lords' influence; however, he is impaled and killed by Brainiac. They then incapacitate Brainiac, taking control of the ship. Superman manages to restore most of the cities back to their original locations.

The heroes are divided over Brainiac's fate. Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Supergirl want to spare him in order to restore the lost cities. Superman, Aquaman, Black Adam, and Wonder Woman want to kill him to eliminate his potential threat and use his ship. Batman subdues Superman with a gold kryptonite-laden dagger and a battle ensues. Batman and Superman defeat each other's teammates before engaging in a final battle in the Batcave. The battle has two endings, depending on which side the player chooses.

If Superman wins, he kills Brainiac, bonds with the ship and reestablishes the regime. He offers an imprisoned Supergirl the chance to join his army, claiming he restored the remaining cities and put Earth at peace. She refuses, and is horrified when she sees Batman under Superman's mind control.

If Batman wins, he depowers Superman and imprisons him in the Phantom Zone. He decides to create a new Justice League with his allies and offers Supergirl a membership within it.

Gameplay: 

It's time to throw dem hands...

Injustice 2 retains numerous gameplay mechanics from Injustice: Gods Among Us, including environment interaction, stage transitions, clashes, and character traits. The trait system, like before, provides a temporary buff or ability that compliments each character's playstyle. The super meter, which allows players to execute enhanced special moves and unlock powerful "super moves" when fully charged, also returns. Players can expend meter to perform new techniques, such as an evasive forward roll, which provides a way to overcome enemy keep-away tactics, or an air recovery, which lets characters escape an opponent's combo early. Most environmental attacks, which were completely unavoidable in the first Injustice game, can now be blocked; however, certain environmental attacks with large amounts of startup, such as throwing a car, will remain unblockable.

Injustice 2 introduces a loot-dropping system, known as the "Gear System", which offers character-specific costume pieces and equipment with status-altering effects. The Gear System uses RPG-like mechanics to reward players with experience and loot after every match. Every playable fighter is given four base stats: strength, defense, health, and ability, the latter of which impacts special attacks. As players collect experience points and subsequently level up, their characters' base stats will increase. Players can enhance their base stats even further by equipping gear obtained through loot drops, which also lets players customize the look of their characters. Rarer gear can include one or more bonus augmentations, which range from new visual effects for special moves to higher yields of in-game currency or experience points. Players can receive additional bonuses by equipping their characters with all five pieces of a single gear set. Gear comes in three varieties: equipment, shaders, and abilities. Besides the random loot earned at the end of a fight, all three types of gear are available to purchase in loot crates, known as "Mother Boxes", using in-game currency. Each character has five equipment slots for donning new costume pieces, which include their head, torso, arms, legs, and an accessory; two ability slots for equipping new or modified special attacks; and one shader slot for altering their color scheme. The game will also include five separate gear loadouts for each character, allowing players to switch between their setups at the beginning of each match.

The game also includes a microtransaction system. Players can buy "Source Crystals" using real-world money to purchase cosmetic adjustments for fighters, such as premier skins and shaders, instead of waiting to obtain them through normal play. Source Crystals can also be used to buy "Transform Gear". Transform Gear lets players apply the visuals of one piece of gear to another, allowing them to match their preferred stat modifiers with their preferred costume pieces. Lastly, once players have reached Level 20 with at least one character, Source Crystals can be used to level up other characters to their maximum levels. NetherRealm representatives clarified that any purchases made with Source Crystals are strictly cosmetic and offer no gameplay advantages.

In addition to the campaign, online, and arcade modes, Injustice 2 introduces a new "Multiverse" mode. Similar to the "Living Towers" mode from NetherRealm's previous title, Mortal Kombat X, the Multiverse allows players to travel through series of parallel worlds within the DC Universe and battle against opponents with various handicaps, stipulations, and goals. Online multiplayer will feature the option to disable Gear System upgrades and modifications, reducing all base stats to their default levels, turning any equipped gear into purely cosmetic items, and providing more balanced gameplay for competitive matches. Players can also form online "guilds" with up to 50 other players. Guild members can collaborate to complete daily and weekly cooperative objectives to earn and share gear exclusive to guild gameplay and climb the worldwide leaderboards.

The Verdict: 

Narrative

The game picks up almost immediately after where the first game left off, only 5 years later after the Justice League (from the main continuity) teamed up with Batman's Insurgency to defeat (Evil) Superman and take him to prison while his regime of followers went into hiding. I found it rather odd, at least from a gameplay perspective that Robin/Damien Wayne plays like the "new" Robin in the prologue of sorts, but he plays how Nightwing/Dick Grayson did in the original game, despite the fact that he's not playable this time around. I'm aware that Nightwing had an alternate costume/skin that made him take on Damien's appearance in the Injustice universe, but that would be just straight up rude (or better yet... cruel) of NetherRealms to include Nightwing as a DLC add-on out of one of the future additional (of possible 10 total that NRS are promising).

Things quickly rehash/recap the events that kickstarted the events of the first game that ends with a face off between Batman and Superman before fast-forwarding to the present with the alarming presence of Brainiac coming to Earth. I found it rather interesting that this sequel took some subtle nods from some of DC Comics' other works, such as Batman developing Brother Eye to monitor the rest of the metahumans on Earth (which ultimately bit him in the ass like it did during the Future's End event), Brainiac coming to Earth after the emergence of Kryptonians (Superman and Supergirl) peaked his interest, and Batman's kryptonite-powered Bat-suit (same thing Terry McGinnis uses against Justice Lords Superman in the Batman Beyond comics that are canonical with the animated series of the same name and the Justice League Unlimited animated series) to name a few.

I hope NRS does an Arrowverse themed Premiere skin pack for we can get costumes and dialogue for the CW versions
of The Flash, Captain Cold/Leonard Snart, Supergirl, and Canary. 

Each chapter of the 11+ chapters of the Story Mode (with 76 battles total if you want to see EVERY event transpire from all perspectives), allows you to play as one or two characters with the case of team-ups you have the option of selecting a different character prior to the pending battle at hand. My only gripe with this is that you can only pause or skip when the game reaches a certain point in the cutscenes, but restarting/reloading checkpoints after losing a battle or restarting where you quit is rather a chore as you're forced to watch a lengthy cutscene or two before you get back to where you were. I know that's more than enough to annoy casual players, along with the sometimes unforgiving AI in this mode. Some battles the AI is a complete pushover, while others it really kicks it up a few notches.

Each of the characters seem interchangeable with little effort done for their individual motives outside of maybe the Trinity, Supergirl, and Brainiac while others you're stuck left wondering why were they even here for this game's events, such as Atrocitus and Dex-Star just showing up in Hal Jordan's chapter merely to offer a Red Lantern ring to him or Cheetah and Reverse Flash showing up in Wonder Woman and The Flash's chapters respectively. I just felt that there was little thought put into some of these encounters other than "Oh let's have their archenemies and rogues face X hero/anti-hero here" to extend this campaign's run-time out or act as mere fan service. It just comes off as lazy in execution in the grand scheme of things.

To say that Grodd's Society (Reverse Flash, Cheetah, Bane, Deadshot, Captain Cold, and Grodd himself) were supposed to be major players in this game like the initial trailers hyped them up to be, they came off to be to pretty much an afterthought once Brainiac came into the picture and filled in the time doing his grunt work when he could have easily sent his drones to do what Grodd promised to assist him with.

Batman's Ending - This is the preferred ending for most players and the one I leaned towards more after dwelling upon it. Batman's planning proved to be fruitful - as usual - as he manages to subdue Superman and strip him away of his powers with the gold kryptonite. Imprisonment into the Phantom Zone is what they should have done in the first damn place, but given that thing, I doubt that would have held him in there long anyway.

That being said, I felt this was the "good" ending out of the two, with peace returning back to Earth as Batman and Supergirl lay down the foundations for a new Justice League. For some reason these games continue to ignore what happens to Batman's allies and Superman's Regime members after the climax. It just comes across as VERY lazy writing. 

Superman's Ending - This is the ending that didn't sit well with a lot of people - myself included - that left the Injustice universe in a far worse state than it was when the game began. Superman has merged his mind with Brainiac's ship and restored the archived civilizations and remaining cities that were thought to be lost. We can safely assume that Superman killed Brainiac as well, but anyone who follows the comics or seen any cartoon that Brainiac has been in knows that guy is harder to get rid of than butt acne and Ultron combined.

Call me crazy, but I think this ending is the one that has a lot more potential to be made canon with future sequels in this universe as there's far too many possibilities on where they could take this further. I know this is the ending that most people don't like and much rather they make Batman's ending canon, but if you read the Injustice tie-in comics, this universe has a knack (more like ongoing trope) for everything going from bad to worse, to shit hitting the fan in the worst way possible. 

Gear System

The Gear System allows players to customize their character(s) with stat modifying buffs and bonuses that change their appearance.  

As detailed above, the Gear System adds a RPG element to the fighting game genre, with loot boxes to have players obsess over like the fans of Overwatch as their rewards from their performances in matches from multiplayer and even single player content. The problem with this system is that while it's fun and addictive enough to extend the game's shelf-life outside of the competitive realm, it's completely random on what loot you acquire for the character(s) that you are playing. There's an option in the General Settings in the main menu to optimize/sway the loot acquired more towards the characters that you are playing currently, but it's still going to be a grind to get the stuff that you want. Out of the four days I had the game rented out of the past weekend, I got one character up to roughly Level 15, a few others to 5-10 thanks to play in Story Mode and miscellaneous Multiverse events and Battle Simulator ladders, but grew bored with this task rather quickly. Eventually I stopped caring how the gear looked on my favorite characters and was just looking for stuff with the best stats period. As the Multiverse challenges increase in difficulty or the rewards spike up in value, I'm sure that most players will resort to doing the same thing, especially in online multiplayer matches where these buffed characters are allowed to go nuts. 

I do appreciate the effort here by NetherRealm Studios to give players the ability to truly make these characters their own cosmetically and via customizable abilities and stats, but I wish there was an option to equip/change your gear without going all the way back to that menu. In single player modes, especially after receiving rewards, they should have included an option to open Mother Boxes right on the spot instead of going back to that menu too. It gets rather redundant really quickly. Players must also note that Mother Boxes should be opened the second you get them as the loot and gear within always applies to your character(s)'s current level, with the rare instances where you might get an Epic (rare) loot drop that is max level.

At least NRS had the foresight to make sure these customizations where only allowed in specific modes of play and won't completely ruin the online experience like the customizations found in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. God, I hope Namco-Bandai learned from their mistakes for Tekken 7...

Overall Experience

Damn, this game had some superb promotional artwork done.

To be honest, I can't speak on the Online Modes as it worked the first night of my rental with this as I was able to join a Guild, but for the rest of the weekend those options on the Main Menu were either grayed out or inaccessible in red, citing that I couldn't connect to the Injustice 2 server, despite being online to PSN. Maybe I had a bugged copy of the game or NetherRealms were doing maintenance but that's something I guess I would have to come back to if I were to rent or purchase this again down the road. From what I have heard from my friends' own online experiences, Deadshot is pretty much the Week 1 Deathstroke from the original Injustice, dominating the online matches with everyone resorting to spammable tactics for wins. 

I have to give NRS props where it's due. DC Comics' heroes and villains haven't ever looked this good in video game, since maybe DC Universe Online, but even these character models blow a lot of those out of the water. I'm glad that they abandoned the grim and depressing colors of the previous game and breathed a lot of life here with the usage of more colors. It makes this world come to life visually and aesthetically on an artistic level too. While I'm not too crazy about a lot of the voices cast to play parts in this (Kevin Conroy as Batman, George Newborn as Superman, and Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman I was perfectly fine with, but everyone else was either hit or miss IMO), the lip syncing and facial animations were incredible. I just wish NRS would quit recycling that death animation at the end of matches where opponents would fall down, only to stand back up and drop to one knee/on their knees in defeat. It's a minor gripe but looks so damn lazy when everything else looks amazing in this game.

As for the controls, they are the same as the first game, but I ran into a minor issue. If you're a Street Fighter player and looking to do those style inputs in a NetherRealms style fighter, it's not going to be understood by the game by default. Instead, the game has Input Shortcuts and Negative Edge enabled by default, so you have to disable those if you want traditional Street Fighter style inputs for the game. Even after changing that in the menus, I had an issue where moves weren't coming out properly to the point where I just said screw it and went back to the default settings. It's possibly something that will get patched out/corrected in a future update, but a minor annoyance for me in my short time with the game. Hey, I didn't care for those input controls for Mortal Kombat 9 nor the original Injustice and it's rather ridiculous that they have the option to switch the style inputs only for it to work haphazardly. 

With Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Tekken 7 on the horizon after the flop that was Street Fighter V's console release, Injustice 2 definitely raised the bar up from out of the toilet and into the heavens on what should be expected out of these fighting games in terms of single player content. Injustice 2's Story Mode is roughly 3-5 hours of content alone if you manage to do EVERYTHING with all of the branching story paths and multiple playable characters. The Multiverse is a fun, yet easy method to grind for EXP (experience) for characters, tokens/coins for spending on in-game items, and acquire Mother Boxes for obtaining more loot to customize your character(s) with. I'm glad that they scrapped the STAR Labs mode from the original game for this as those mini-games went from fun to absolutely retarded. Here, you can just pick up your favorite character(s) and have a ball however you see fit, no matter what your skill level is. On top of that, the Multiverse challenges refresh and update every few hours/days, so there's always something new to come back and do, along with the daily challenges (Street Fighter V has this as well, but who actually cares about doing those daily?) as well. 

Let's not forget about the downloadable content (DLC) on the horizon as well.

I can easily tell that Black Manta and Raiden make up the two of those 6 remaining DLC fighters, but no idea on the rest.

Sweet news to hear that Starfire is getting to be in this as I wanted her to be in the original, but seeing Red Hood makes me groan with disgust that I'm hoping that this game doesn't make the same mistake the original did and oversaturate the roster with nothing but Bat-Family affiliates and Batman rogues. From the tie-in comics and characters in the DC Universe as a whole, they shouldn't have any shortage of characters to pick from to be in this game. It's not like the original game where they had to depend on fan favorites and the established Batman brand to sell the product to people since it was a new IP. I know there's going to be plenty of people that disagree with me in that aspect, but for fuck's sake, there's TONS of games out there where you can play as Batman-themed characters. There's SOOO many other characters in DC Comics that deserve some representation in these games too.

Play It or Don't Bother?

Martha ain't gonna save you from this beatdown, Bats.

I personally rented the game last week for 5 days - completed Story Mode, ran through all most all of the roster's individual character trials/tutorials, and had enough time to dwell into the Multiverse for a lengthy bit of time. With the online content excluded, I enjoyed my time with the game. If you like the original game, there's more of the same while the fresh faces on the roster spice things up in a positive manner. I just hope that they bring back some of the other noteworthy characters from the original back in some fashion. If John Stewart can be in this as a premiere skin for GL and he's dead in the official storyline canon, I think NetherRealm Studios can find a means to make other characters playable in a similar regard. They have more than enough content here to keep players busy on and offline for months on end with the Multiverse and grinding it out for loot for Gear customizations for their favorite fighters while online Guilds and the Online AI Simulators will ensure that players of all skill levels will get something out of all modes of play. 

While I could knock this game for the sometimes "clunky" speed combat feels at times (it's just something about NetherRealms games that always feels off to me coming from Tekken/Soul Calibur and Street Fighter into playing this) and the recycled death/defeat animations, there's still some fun to be had here. NRS definitely learned their lessons from their first outing here and definitely raised the bar for a fighting game launch with tons of single player content, a thorough tutorial to teach players the basics and advanced techniques, and a stable (from what I've heard) online environment. 

Sorry, Capcom, but you're definitely going to have to bring your A game when Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite drops later this year after that mess that was Street Fighter V's launch last year. DC Comics and NetherRealms have raised the bar big time. For that, I'm more than happy to recommend that players give this game a shot. There's something here for everyone to enjoy, whether you plan on grinding it in the long haul and master every character and dominate the opposition online or you're just in for the short run for the story and messing around with the Multiverse and other various single player content.